xoxo

xoxo

Sunday, October 25, 2009

Josh and Michelle's Wedding Reception

The first weekend in October we held a wedding reception in Memphis in honor of Michelle and Josh's marriage this summer. We had so much fun putting it all together. I think it was a huge success! Best wishes for their first year of marriage!!!




Michelle and Josh with Anthony
(don't they make the cutest couple!?!)

The three sisters

The whole family


Me, Mario, and the new baby!

Anthony loving on his MeMe

Anthony found a new best friend in cousin Landon. They entertained each other at the reception!


Mario talking to Josh's uncle Benjamen. They each thought the other was "so cool"!
(inside family joke, but they both really are!!!)


Our family

Gotta Keep Dancing!

Like father, like son, right??? Here Mario is teaching Anthony some more new dance moves...or is it the other way around??? ;)



All the friends in our cheerleading past will appreciate this one!

Pregnancy Progress and A Date Night!!!

26 weeks

My sweet hubby and I ready to go out for a much-needed date!
(We love it when we have family in town to babysit!!!)



Saturday, October 10, 2009

18 Month Check-Up

Well, here are Anthony's stats from last month's checkup...



Weight 19-8 (less than 3%)

Height 31 3/4 inches (45%)

Head 45 1/2 cm (5%)



I think he's had a growth spurt lately. He's always managed to stay on the growth chart for his height, but he just seems taller now...maybe just because he's looking more like a big boy. He still is not on the growth chart for his weight, but he made a major jump up back toward the bottom of the chart, so Dr. Goebel was very pleased with his progress.



Anthony is definitely starting to push the rules and limits more and more. I know this is a normal part of growing up, but some days he just wears me out! Mario and I are doing our best to stay very consistent with consequences for disobedience. He's just too darn cute because he absolutely knows when he's doing something wrong..he just gets this little look on his face! He's been very clingy toward me and very needy (i.e. not wanting to play by himself) over the past few months. Just recently over the past few weeks he has been very attached to Mario again and prefers him over me. And usually when we pick him up from the church nursery lately, he's almost always snuggling in someone's lap!



His mind is just exploding with new things he's learning. Some of his newest words include "potty", "bunny" (or "bu-ee" without the "n" sound), "green", "yellow" (although he doesn't always know the difference), "night-night", "book", "baby", "knee", "apple", "pumpkin", "juice", "shoe", and TONS of animal sounds! He LOVES for me to sing songs with motions, so we're doing alot of "Wheels on the Bus", "Itsy-Bitsy Spider", "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star" and "Jesus Loves Me". "Jesus Loves Me" is our newest one, but with the other three songs he will do motions with me most of the time. He enjoys dancing as you may have seen from my previous post, but he also enjoys being held and just moving to the music. He always wants to go outside, and will point and say "outside" and grab my hand and lead me to the front door.



Anthony is still a great sleeper, usually sleeping 12 hours at night and a good 2 hour nap in the afternoon. I am so spoiled by him--he always goes down great and most always wakes up so happy! I can't believe I'm going to have to go back to the "night shift" here soon with the new baby!!! We try to explain that there is a baby in mommy's tummy, but it still just goes right over his head! We plan to transition him to a toddler bed in the upcoming weeks.



He is still a mover and a shaker...he just can't sit still! He runs more than walks these days, and sometimes just runs back and forth across the house, getting some energy out. He loves to "help" mommy clean by sweeping floors, pushing the wet clothes into the dryer, wiping the floors or highchair with a wet cloth, and bringing me clothes to fold. I've found that if I designate a task for him to do while I'm doing chores, he's much more likely to me content with my attention being divided.

Anthony loves to "talk" on the phone. Almost anything and everything can be a phone these days...a banana, a piece of plastic, a big lego, etc. He always says "goo-goo" when he answers his phone...I guess that means "hello" in toddler language. He will carry on a conversation that always has some good laughs in it...just wonder who he's talking to. He also "puts on eye makeup" with mommy and pretends to put lotion on his legs. He's into make believe and pretend now. He'll stir an empty pot and give us a "taste" or bring an upside down lego for us to 'drink" from. We've seen him sitting in his carseat picking up pretend food from the door of the car and "eating" it, not knowing that anyone was watching.

He still has this amazing joy about him that is simply contagious. Even on frustrating days he's full of smiles. He truly is the love of our lives and is just getting to that age where he says and does so many funny things--you just can't help but to laugh when you're around him! We're trying to cherish every moment of these few remaining months of Anthony being an "only child". I thank God every night for the blessing he is in our lives.

Anthony Faces Forward!

Last weekend we got up REALLY early and left at 4am to drive to Memphis for Aunt Michelle's wedding reception. Here are a couple of pics of Anthony snuggled in his big-boy seat facing FORWARD! woo-hoo! It was his first time seeing as it's taken him 19 months to reach the 20 pound mark!!! (Well, he was 19 1/2 pounds at his 18 month check up, so we just figured a month later he'd be close enough). He's got his thumb and bunny--his two favorite things. He did great on the drive overall. Unfortunately since this "whole new world" has opened up to him with so much to look at (instead of having to stare at the backseat for 7 hours), he never went back to sleep for more than 30 minutes the entire rest of the trip! Oh well! At least he pretty much stayed in a good mood!


Anthony's New Moves

Ever since Anthony was born, he has demonstrated a true love of music. Lately, he walks over to the cd player and points to it, letting us know he'd like to listen to some tunes. He's really into dancing right now as well. However, we have no idea where he picked up some of these moves! Just a note to the observer...Mario's dancing in the corner of the video is just a copy of what Anthony is already doing or things we've seen him do before! I have to say my sweet hubby is an excellent dancer in real life. We just dance silly to egg Anthony on. We've labeled some of his moves "The Frankenstein", "The Grasshopper", "The Stomp", and "Aerobics". See if you can tell which one is which!

Anthony "Helps" Daddy

Daddy was cleaning out the garage last month, and Anthony decided he would help. He loves playing with all of Daddy's tools. Here he found a wood clamp and thought it was the greatest thing ever! I think he was trying to "sweep". What a great little helper we have!!!

Pregnancy Progress

21 weeks
23 weeks

24 weeks

I'm feeling really great at this point. This is the part of pregnancy that I absolutely love!!! We can't believe it's right around the corner. Baby #2 will be here before you know it!

Movie Night in McKinney

We decided to go to a "movie night in the park" one weekend in September. They were showing Wall-E, so we thought Anthony might enjoy it. Here he is playing in the park before the movie started.

The wood chips are still his favorite part!


Sliding down the tube slide all by myself!

"Wheeeeee!"


He had so much fun playing outside! Notice, however, that there are no pictures of the movie! Yeah, we got our blanket spread out, pulled out some snacks, and watched the previews. The previews weren't even over by the time Anthony had finished his snacks! So, he was up and running around. Mario played a little light-up frisbee with him in the dark. Then we realized it just wasn't going to happen. Oh well! Maybe next year he'll have a longer attention span!




Enjoying the Last Summer Days

These pics were taken at the end of August, one weekend when it was beautiful enough to play outside!

playing with the hose

"ooh...it's cold!"




better make sure I got my sunscreen on


Anthony's first time drinking from the hose! Enjoy!